How to Become a Christian

If you are not a Christian, you have a nature that is prone
to sin. In order to get rid of it, you need a new nature. You cannot get one by
yourself. It can be done only by God.

If you want to be a Christian, here is your part:

1. You need to want to be set free from the guilt and
judgement for your sins and from the pow­er of sin.

2. You need to know that you are helpless in this want. You
can’t set yourself free.

3. Know that being good and not be­ing bad will not set you
free, nor will any other means of self-effort.

4. Know that God has already accom­plished this deliverance
by sending the Lord Jesus to earth to die for you. “You see, at just the right
time, when we were still pow­erless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6).

Three days after this death for our sins, the Lord Jesus
rose from the dead in order to make us righteous. “He was delivered over to
death for our sins and was raised to life for our justi­fication” (Rom. 4:25).

“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I
preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By
this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.
Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as
of first impor­tance: that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according
to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve” (1
Cor. 15:1–5).

5. The Holy Spirit is now drawing you to turn from your sin,
to call upon the Lord Jesus for forgiveness and salvation, trusting Him, His
death, and His resurrection. “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with
your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved . . . for, ‘Everyone who
calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Romans 10:9–10, 13). Tell Him
you don’t want to live the way you’ve been living anymore, and ask Him to save
you. He will do it.

Now that you have called upon the Lord Jesus, thank Him for saving
you, for forgiving your sin, and for giving you everlasting life.

Now, in the joy of your forgiveness, tell some­one what God
has done for you.